Last Day
by anoneight8
Summary: You never know when your last moment will be. You can only hope that it will all be worth it when you go. PostMovieverse. One-sided Sideswipe x Arcee, mention of Sunny x Tracks. Warning: Character Death.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** This is just another fleshed out excerpt from an RP timeline of ours that I had the random inclination to write. It's set PostMovieverse, but assumes that Megatron is revived G1-style as a homicidal, purple lunatic, causing the war and all the hardships entailed to flourish anew on Earth. Also, I'm always nervous enough posting something...but please forgo flaming if you're the type who thinks the femmes should have never existed and none of your dear boys should ever be attracted to them in any fashion. I'm equal opportunity in my pairings and like a little bit of everything. I'm hoping others might too. This story should only end up a few chapters long though. I'll try to finish soon.

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His head dipped forward, optics flickering as his systems attempted to enter a forced recharge yet again. But also like every other time before, Sideswipe only snapped back awake in a dazed instant, shifting slightly against the rubble he was perched on as he looked up to see if anything had changed during his latest battle with exhaustion.

But of course nothing had. The same abandoned streets met his scanners, with the same crumbled buildings, and the same arrangement of foreign stars growing ever dimmer as the Earth's sun started to break over the horizon.

He'd been online for four days straight. But as those first rays of light came across the slanted cityscape, it now made it the fifth for him. Under normal circumstances the Cybertronian body could function, adequately at least, without a proper recharge cycle for even longer. But he was under the double strain of a self-repair network doing its best to keep him together, and a lackluster amount of energon pumping through his lines that fell well below the traditional levels of Autobot tolerance. If there was ever one good thing that could have been said about the war on Cybertron in comparison to this, it was that Prime had never let them go hungry back then.

But the lack of energon sources now was only at the bottom of their current list of crisis points. To make due, they were just internally converting whatever pittance they could from the raw, human gruel known as gasoline. Their alt modes kept that down pretty well at least. It was a strenuous diet, but they were still fueled enough to be up and fighting whenever it really mattered.

Those of them that were still _here_ to get up at all anyway.

Sideswipe could admit to having been one of the naïve few that had really believed their war died the same day that Megatron had. But of course this wouldn't even be close to the first time that he'd been horribly wrong about something either. Though he doubted even the deeper thinkers would have pictured so many of these human cities ending up entirely reminiscent of the world they'd left behind. Who ever would have thought that there'd just be _another _Megatron someday? Like that slagger really couldn't die…

That seeming immortality wasn't at all fair when they couldn't say the same for themselves. It seemed like they'd lost more friends in just these first few months of the newer war than they had in years on Cybertron. And not even the reckless types like him that everyone would have expected to bite it first. No, it was the older guys. The ones he almost thought could have beaten _anyone_ for how long they'd lasted to get this far. They'd seen and survived more battles than he probably ever would.

When a sudden burning jolt ran down through his bad arm, he knew that he'd been gripping at the wounded limb too hard again. The physical pain might make for a decent distraction from his emotions, but that kind of cowardice wasn't anything for him. He wasn't going to pretend that all those memories didn't affect him. Thinking of Prowl, Ratchet, Ironhide, and everyone else…those guys weren't going to be coming back this time. But being bitter about it, or trying to ignore how badly it hurt wasn't going to help him keep anyone else alive either.

Yet he'd still feel like less of a useless pile of scrap right now if he were actually accomplishing anything besides making a persistent dent in some rubble as he sat here on his aft. The last verified Decepticon activity in this sector had been over two Earth weeks ago. He understood that they couldn't just abandon the humans still encamped in this area, but Primus couldn't he have at least been ordered somewhere where plasma fire was still blazing? He made for one poor sentry bot, that was for sure. Patience had nothing to do with him. It was only because of his injuries that he'd been sidelined at all by now.

With things as chaotic as they were and supplies so limited, they didn't have the means to repair much of anything currently. For the most part, if you could still walk, you stayed out on patrol. Which apparently was all he was going to be doing until either they could truly patch him up, or things got even worse and even those in as bad a shape as him got ordered off back to the front lines again.

Though he did think he'd been a pretty decent actor about covering up his shortcomings this far. He could at least move his right arm around enough to show that it wasn't totally immobile. His hand was completely paralyzed, yes, but no one seemed to have noticed him carrying his weapon on the wrong side lately. He hadn't expected that they would though. Who _ever _noticed anything about him unless he literally demanded that attention?

Sideswipe frowned again, wondering how much these long stretches of inaction must be starting to get to him. The last thing he needed to do was begin inwardly whining at a time like this. If Sunny had been here, he surely would have reminded Sideswipe to feel doubly stupid about these petty complaints.

But with everyone being so spread out, it should have come as no surprise that they'd end up completely out of contact for so long now. Though it made it even easier to miss his brother when he hadn't really gotten to talk to him even before everything had gone to total slag in just a few Earth months.

Before they'd even gotten to this planet, his brother's whimsy had deadlocked on what was now a certain blue corvette and that'd pretty much been it. Sideswipe doubted that he held any real jealousy towards the new couple and their constant time together though. He knew how passionate Sunny could get about his newest partners. And in the past that novelty had always worn off eventually. Not that he didn't want his brother to find an _actual_ sparkmate someday either, but it was just that a relationship like that was really nothing Sideswipe could understand. It was something they couldn't share.

Partners almost seemed to come and go in an endless procession for Sunny, but for Sideswipe they never came at all. Besides the occasional drunk on high-grade episode with his own brother, he could honestly say that he'd never come close to any of those kinds of intimacies Sunny so often liked to go on and on about in extreme, bragging detail.

Though this perpetual singlehood certainly wasn't from a lack of at least _trying_ to find someone who could put up with him. But his tastes just ran so much differently than those of his twin. Sunstreaker could never have understood why Sideswipe was so hopeless about certain things without giving up on them and moving on. Hopeless about certain friends really.

It was true that his logic circuits had never been that great to begin with, and were probably shorting in and out now as he was about to offline from exhaustion and tumble down a hill of debris to a nice dirt nap below. But he had nothing else to do to pass the time but try and stay awake by letting his mind run in circles. He'd thought about a little bit of everything by now, even if he wasn't at all the introspective type. So there was no way he couldn't have eventually come back to thinking about exactly _why_ he hadn't ever had that kind of luck like his brother. Why he was always alone, even if he had so many friends. Sideswipe couldn't help but consider this when he started to glance back over at her as she actually got a little rest while he was supposed to still be on watch.

Arcee wasn't half as bashed up as he was to be out here. She had more sense than to rush head long into any and every fight like him. Though her Decepticon trashing count was probably as good, if not better, than his own by the end. Really he knew she was still in acceptable enough condition that she shouldn't have been cast off so quickly to this monitoring assignment at all. But he could also understand the bias that kept her here too. Nobody liked to see a femme get torn up. Especially not the oldest mechs that still remembered the days when there'd actually been more than a handful of them. Thinking of her ever getting seriously hurt probably reminded them too much of losing their own mates. He couldn't really blame the old fogies for being protective in that case, even if it might only be a subconscious fear that kept them prejudiced against her in this way.

Of course he didn't feel _too_ guilty about her bad luck becoming his good luck either though, since he never would have turned down the chance to go on another assignment with her. Sunstreaker could tell him that he was a pathetic fool a billion times over, and he'd probably agree every time that it was true. But Sideswipe still would never think she wasn't worth the little flux that came over his spark every time he got to pester her or spend any instance in her company at all.

Life would have been so much easier for him if this _wasn't_ the case though. He could have just gone along with the rumors that said he and his brother were getting under each other's chest plates constantly. They could have made that true if they'd wanted to, and he'd have always had a partner and would have been content and fine with it. But that's just not the way it was. He loved Sunstreaker in a way no one else but two twins could have ever understood, but they weren't mates. Right now Sunny had Tracks, later on who knew who it would be.

For his own part, Sideswipe had come to accept that he wasn't going to have anyone by this point. Not with his preference towards the now almost non-existent femmes of their race. It was an innate attraction he just couldn't reprogram. One that so amusingly abhorred his twin even if Sideswipe doubted many others had ever realized that fact about him.

Of course Arcee knew of his leanings though. She'd turned him down enough times to almost make a running gag out of it. But even playing chase was better than nothing. He knew that no meant no, but if a flirting tease and a ruffled response on her part was about all he could hope to experience, he'd take that gladly. Even more so now when all those good times already seemed so far behind them.

Sideswipe startled slightly at a sudden hard ping off of his helm, then watching as an errant piece of concrete went skittering down the debris pile. He'd just started to lift up his good hand to reflexively check the damage as he heard a soft chuckle off to his side.

"That's what you get for staring," the pink femme spoke up tiredly, though evidently amused at gravity's continuing dislike for him.

"Good morning to you too," he answered with a feigned sulk, though of course not really caring if he now had a new dent to add to his collection or not. It should have long ceased to matter by this point. Not that Sunstreaker wouldn't have had a small fit had it been him.

Arcee didn't seem in a rush to get up just yet even as the hum of her different systems grew a little louder while she gradually came online. He thought she might only be staring out to the sunrise as she spoke again. "Did you stay awake this time?"

"Of course," he smirked coolly.

"Uh huh," came the skeptical reply.

"Check my clock if I'm lying!" Sideswipe grinned playfully, with a sudden lean forward that suggested just where that clock might be.

The femme stared at him for one long moment before giving an excellent rendition of the human sigh as she started to sit herself up, shaking her head at his predictability even as she tried to hold back a smile. "It's too early for this."

"Ain't it always?"

She contemplated tossing another piece of concrete his way, but realized that would only encourage him if anything. "Did anyone call?"

"Nope. They've decided to leave us here to rot." He leaned back on his elbows, feeling a little less responsibility in keeping alert now that he had another pair of optics to help him. He cocked his head up at her. "Though at least it's good company right?"

"Oh, unquestionably." Arcee answered, already checking her own comm. link to make sure that it hadn't gone out on her during recharge. Nothing about their systems could really be taken for granted now that their energy supplies were running as low as this. Though hers did seem to still be active, she assumed Sideswipe would know if his was as well.

They both went quiet for a while after that. He assumed she was fiddling with her system checks to find what percentage everything was now running at. He was just doing his best to stay awake again.

Arcee didn't fail to notice the flickering in his optics as he shifted further back though. "You don't have to be so tough you know. Just go to sleep," she chided, taking at least some satisfaction in the indignant look he gave her in return. "And no, I won't tell your brother that you were sleeping the whole time that he was fighting."

Ah, she had to know his sensitive pride was the weak point. Sideswipe grunted at her little jab, frowning momentarily as some jealousy snuck its way in, "That lucky jerk has no idea what city I'm even stationed in now, much less about my _security_ duty…" Though he did continue on far less seriously, hardly ever missing the opportunity to spin something into a joke with her, "But you know it'd ruin my life if you told him that, don't you?" He tried to make the notion seem as world ending as possible, "He'd never let me live it down! You couldn't do that could you, Arcee? Not to me, huh? You'd never be that cruel! You love me!" He paused for effect. "_Right?_"

She never really would have considered that a Cybertronian could give the so called "puppy dog look" as human's called it. But Sideswipe was certainly trying. He got points for the effort at least. The femme lowered her shoulders, putting her hand over her face for a moment at his feigned instance of hysterics and play for sympathy. "No, I guess we couldn't have any life ruining experiences like that, could we?"

"Goes against Autobot code," Sideswipe agreed, immediately losing the pathetic expression though he wasn't done with the absurdity yet. "Rule #247: Honor thy allies and never rat them out if they need to take a nap!" His body felt so miserable, but this moment of sheer nonsense was easily lifting his spirits higher than they'd been in the last several weeks now, maybe months even.

And her helpless expression in response to his randomness made it all the more worthwhile. He doubted he'd seen her smile that genuinely in the longest time either, especially not at him. "You're…I'm calling Hound now."

"Sure thing." he "winked" at her to the best of his ability, briefly closing one still flickering optic.

"Go to _sleep_ Sideswipe," she finally said with another exasperated look that made it seem like she didn't know whether to smile again or hit him with something heavy. She was well prepared to threaten pushing him down the rubble pile herself if he refused to heed his own body and shut himself down before he overtaxed anymore of his apparently half-fried circuits. Really, there were just some mechs they never warned you about during Autobot training.

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_To be continued._


	2. Chapter 2

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"Knock, knock. Anybody home?"

He stirred only after the fifth or sixth tap to his chest, reluctantly onlining his optics to see one huge heel hovering half in his face. Sideswipe reached out without much coordination, trying to push it away while he stared up towards the two blurry shapes standing above him. As his optics came into focus, he recognized their colors before anything else. "Funny…"

Hound smirked down at the younger mech, pulling his foot back as Sideswipe proved he wasn't entirely dead to the world after all. "Well, you sure weren't moving. We thought poor Arcee was going to have to lug your chassis all the way back."

The blue and white mech lingering beside the Jeep tried to lessen his own culpability with a light chuckle. "I suggested we just let you sleep, but Hound believed that you may end up snoring and call out the Decepticons."

As if mechs were even capable of that function. Even Mirage seemed willing to make a joke at his expense today. Sideswipe couldn't help but smirk tiredly up at the two familiar faces however, forcing himself back to sitting before taking Hound's offered hand to be pulled up onto his feet. "Well thanks for the consideration. But at least tell me I can still have my own trash pile to recharge in back at HQ then…"

"Plenty of it," Mirage noted far less enthusiastically, drawing a not so hidden smirk from his partner.

The current state of the spy's paint job easily explained that unhappy tone. Besides the scattered fractures and dents throughout his metal, Mirage's frame wasn't exactly whiteany longer now that Sideswipe actually noticed. The upper-crust mech may not have been as fanatical about his exterior as some specific individuals, but they all knew this was still another 'bot that didn't quite appreciate the value of a little filth.

There was a shortage of clean, drinkable water in this area for the humans as was. So the Autobots certainly wouldn't be wasting any more of that resource just to wash off their own forms. Everyone's plating was caked with dried dirt and smears of energon by now. And with no large bodies of water in the immediate area for any of them to wade into for some relief, this was pretty much just how things were going to remain.

But Sideswipe couldn't care less about getting washed off himself. The discomfort of dirty joints and the particles grating between each hinge could go ignored indefinitely. Those smaller problems weren't all that painful in comparison to everything else, and any fixation on appearance would only be for 'bots much better looking than him to begin with. The Lamborghini knew he just needed to start walking before he collapsed down into stasis again. The faded look of his once vibrant, red paint was hardly worth thinking of. "So what are the orders, sergeant?"

Hound subtly kept his arm out a bit as if ready to catch Sideswipe should the other's body indeed decide to buckle. He ignored the human ranking term that could have only been another joke towards his army inspired alt mode, but Sideswipe's insistence on levity kept a light smile on the Jeep's face regardless. "Not much. We're taking over for this sector. You guys can go on and head back to recharge and get some fuel. There's still been no more 'con activity since that last report. The others can fill you in about everybody else if they've gotten any more information since we checked in. But they hadn't heard from Prime's group the last time I asked."

Sideswipe nodded, knowing that was all he was going to get for now then. Sunny and Tracks should still be with Optimus. He'd definitely make sure to ask whoever was stationed at the makeshift command post for another update before promptly passing the slag out whenever they got there though.

But he wasn't even too sure that he could transform to drive all the way back. It had hurt like the Pit the last time he had tried. But most the roads were blocked with big chunks of buildings anyhow. Ruins from months before, just like the small mountain they were now walking down together as they headed back towards street level.

Sideswipe abruptly noted that Arcee was already standing there waiting for them as well, and couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't just left on her own already. Though he knew that he wouldn't have been too thrilled about limping back through these abandoned streets by himself if changing back to his alt mode did prove less than possible. He reasoned that maybe she just hadn't wanted to make the trek alone either. Or worse, that they might all have thought that he was going to need the help to make it. But he really hoped that wasn't it.

"Well have fun on the oh so exciting patrol, guys. Don't overwork yourselves or anything in all that action," Sideswipe spoke up again despite himself, giving a joking little salute to his friends.

"Don't sleep too hard," Hound quipped back, patting the younger mech on one dented shoulder before stepping back to transform into his Jeep form.

"Arcee will just be glad to be rid of him," Mirage added with that refined smile of his, nodding to the femme. "Call us if you need a tow truck. I'm sure we could arrange for something."

"Hey!" Sideswipe protested weakly, watching the spy slip away into his own vehicular mode.

"Bye, guys," Arcee only chuckled, waving casually, "I think I can manage."

Sideswipe crossed his scuffed up arms to the best of his ability, watching the scout and the spy give a flash of their headlights as their own last wave before they turned onto another block and their engine noise faded off into the distance. "Since when did those two become a tag team against me?" He huffed, looking over to Arcee, though ruining his own pretense of being highly offended as he'd already began to smirk when they made eye contact. "And you were in on it!"

"Uh huh. And how many times have you pranked us all, Sideswipe?" The femme responded calmly, already beginning to walk. "I think a little teasing is more than fair."

"Nah, I don't _do_ fair," he retorted slyly, before returning to his exaggerations as he began to follow behind her, though now wondering why she hadn't yet attempted to transform. "Don't you know who my brother is? He would have run all over me if I had!" Not that that wasn't exactly what had usually happened. But Sunstreaker's constant one-up-manship over him was beside the point, especially now.

Sideswipe was actually very glad that Arcee had so quickly presented a topic he could easily fuss over. He didn't want to give any prolonged silence between them a chance to start. These streets were dead. With every childish response or retort that rambled out, it made that unsettling atmosphere a little easier to ignore. And always thinking of his next stupid thing to say also kept his processors from locking up on him completely when everything in him just wanted to rest.

"Okay, well when was the last time you pranked Sunstreaker?" The femme offered next, perhaps on some level understanding the seemingly Bluestreak like penchant for conversation that Sideswipe had started to develop as of late.

But of course the real difference between he and the Datsun's ramblings, was that for Sideswipe it had everything to do with his audience as well. He loved to just know that she was listening to him now, even if it might only be through pity or her lack of any other choice at this moment. "I never, _ever_ prank Sunny," Sideswipe answered with a purposeful emphasis of seriousness, delighting in the slight look the femme gave over one shoulder that spoke of her thinking him an utter liar.

Like most everyone else, Arcee had assumed that those immature, little tit for tat games were mutual between the brothers. But it was also true that she didn't know Sunstreaker nearly as well as she did Sideswipe. The femme would be hesitant to actually say that the yellow mech had ever been overtly callous to her, but Arcee knew that he had certainly never seemed to appreciate her presence whenever they'd needed to work together for any reason.

"I'm completely serious," Sideswipe only went on to promise smilingly in the face of such understandable skepticism. "He _hates_ being tricked. He'd never speak to me again if I did anything like that to him." Though this was just another half truth of course. Sideswipe had done plenty of not so nice -yet extraordinarily hilarious- things to his twin over the course of their lives and hadn't been eternally forsaken just yet because of it. Though there definitely would always be an extended period of punishment that followed each incident. A length of time whose duration would depend directly on the perceived severity of the offense. Sunstreaker would always repay him tenfold really, with extended games of "ignore the Sideswipe" in response for each of those petty pranks.

Sideswipe wasn't sure though of exactly when things had gotten to the point that he'd actually found it too stressful on himself to purposefully make Sunstreaker angry with him. He already missed his twin enough between Sunny's passing infatuations with other Autobots and all the battles that had spread them out and kept them going longer and longer without contact. He certainly wasn't going to be pulling any stunts to drive the other away even further now.

But eventually realizing that he might have quieted for a little too long in the time it took to think on all this though, Sideswipe went on to speak up again with an abrupt dose of arrogance. He had learned from one of the best after all. "But yeah, I got that jerk good all the time when we were younger! I'm still the best and he knows it. Mr. '_I'm so yellow and thereby the most beautiful thing to ever exist on two stabilizing servos_' could never mess with this!"

Arcee smiled oddly, delayed in the couple nano-kliks it took her to really determine a proper response as Sideswipe posed momentarily in some vague gesture of egotism and masculine might. It'd be difficult for her to imagine how Sideswipe really felt. She didn't know what it was like to be born with someone else. And to compete, be jealous, love, or miss them entirely once your lives finally split you in two different directions. Simple friendship probably could never compare to those types of bonds. But she was glad that Sideswipe seemed to have no problem at least talking about Sunstreaker, even if he really said nothing at all between all his jokes and taunting little remarks.

"Unless Optimus wants to run his current team right into the ground, I'm sure there will be another rotation in assignments soon." The femme remarked after a few more thoughtful moments. Certainly the twins would get to cross paths again. Arcee didn't want to believe that the war on this planet could ever rage as long as it had on their own world. Earth wasn't like Cybertron. It would wither and crumble much faster. That process was already happening quite rapidly. So the Cybertronian conflict couldn't drag on for more than a few Earth years at the most she assumed. The Autobots wouldn't have to remain spread out across this foreign world indefinitely. Eventually there'd have to be a conclusion. But to which faction fate would give its favor, still no one knew.

The pair slowed to a stop as they came to the next street corner. They needed to be heading towards the park. It was the most open space available in the city, and thereby where the Autobots in this area had currently stationed their operations.

"Left isn't it? My positioner's glitching up on me," Sideswipe admitted with somewhat surprising honesty as he waited for Arcee to confirm the best route.

"We could get there that way…but I think it'd take longer," she corrected gently, looking to the north. "Right would be faster."

His expression relaxed somewhat at the proof that this might not be something he could have done on his own after all. But Sideswipe managed another smirk at his pretty escort regardless. It wasn't really that bad after all. He'd made a good experience out of even worse situations before. And he was still _with_ Arcee. After they returned to HQ, he doubted he'd be so lucky to get any time alone with the femme again anytime soon. They'd probably just put in him in line for what little maintenance was available and leave him. "You know, humans have a joke about the different genders and their efficiency with directions."

Arcee raised an optic ridge at him with moderate interest at that. They still had quite a distance to go, and there was no point doing it in silence. "Alright, let's hear it."

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_To be continued._


End file.
